Monthly Nexus - August 2026: Introduction to Tots-like Games and 9-1 Look Back
*I had planned to update Monthly Nexus after the 9-1 expansion, but since August is almost over, I’ve decided to post it now
*“Monthly Nexus” is a series I started after coming across a tweet one day while doing an ego search that said, “I want a survival report from the developer”—and basically, I only write trivial stuff here.
*The combined July–August issue of Monthly Nexus, which summarizes Tactical Nexus’s game design and a post-mortem for Version 5.0, will be posted on the website next month or the month after.
(It’s nearly 5 times the word count of this article—almost the length of a paperback book—and since Steam News tends to glitch when the word count exceeds a certain limit, I’ll be posting it on the website instead.)
Hello. This is the August issue of Monthly Nexus.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve felt Earth’s gravity.
Since I was living in zero-gravity space from February through July of this year, I still haven’t fully gotten used to this sensation of gravity.
Now, thanks to all of you purchasing so much DLC, we’ve generated 8,000 kyō dollars in sales.
Using those funds, we were able to successfully expand to other planets.
As part of TacticalNexus’s “cosmic expansion,” we spent February, March, April, May, June, and July developing stages and writing articles on Neptune.
So, while I finished writing and updating the articles in February—and TacticalNexus is actually already complete—it may be quite a while before you all receive them.
That’s because of the time difference.
It has been six years since we began receiving praise from players such as “development with absolutely no delays,” “the miraculous team that meets every deadline for every stage,” and “𝙀𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙉𝘼𝙇 𝙏𝙄𝙈𝙀 𝙆𝙀𝙀𝙋𝙀𝙍𝙎.”
However, meeting deadlines is simply expected. We are merely doing what is expected of us.
Failing to meet deadlines or suddenly postponing them—this is unthinkable for any adult. Even animals, for the most part, maintain precise internal clocks.
However, the reality of distance is cruel. TacticalNexus, which declared around 2021 that it would complete all stages, has had its content updates hindered by the gap between planets.
Earth has established high-speed data communication technologies, starting with the internet, and I realize just how truly blessed and wonderful a planet it is.
Damn it, time difference—we can’t forgive you…!
Compared to the boundless vastness of space, everything in society is trivial.
Therefore, TacticalNexus’s delay is also trivial.
Thank you for your patience.
◆Regarding Future Update Plans
Within the next 2–3 days, we plan to release an update featuring several bug fixes and a new “Super Status Stamp” feature for Extended Screen.
(Since I really wanted this feature during the adjustments, I’m prioritizing its implementation in Extended Screen.)
After that, I plan to post a link to the test server on the Discord community, have players try out the alternate route for Chapter 9-1, and then adopt and release the version that receives the best feedback.
I expect this will be at least ten days from now.
(When we release this Chapter 9-1 expansion update, the high score threshold for Chapter 9-1 will be significantly adjusted, resulting in a substantial reduction in rewards for the normal route.
We plan to ensure the total amount of rewards doesn’t decrease by making it possible to earn an amount equal to or greater than the reduction in the alternative route of Chapter 9-1.
However, it’s also possible to maintain your current rewards—meaning your Sunstone count will remain unchanged until you set a new high score.)
In the alternate route of 9-1, a Legacy with extremely powerful effects is scheduled to appear if you have 10,000 or more Sunstones.
I apologize for the delay, but while testing the game, I realized just how inconvenient it was, so I plan to expand the Early Access version a bit first to make the game a little easier to play for both players and on the test server.
◆Introduction to a Game Using the Same System as TacticalNexus
Given our current setup—and the fact that “few developers would be thrilled to be featured on a site like ours”—we’ve been intentionally avoiding coverage of recent games, especially in the past few months.
However, we discovered that the developer of the game we’re about to introduce has been a member of the TacticalNexus Discord for five and a half years, and since we’ve received their permission, we’d like to feature it here.
[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/3371260/_/"][/dynamiclink]
Last month, a game titled “Requiem of Reuinis” was released on Steam.
This game follows the same “Tower of the Sorcerer” system as TacticalNexus and features a massive game volume, as well as a “stuck-game prevention feature” and options to increase the difficulty.
(In fact, numerous players in the TacticalNexus community have been posting walkthroughs for Requiem of Reuinis every day.)
Overall, this is a different game from TacticalNexus—which has been saying things like “I don’t want the player base to grow” and “Please stop promoting it”—so I hope you’ll spread the word about this game through word of mouth and other means.
(As you can see from the number of reviews, it’s already being played by more people than TacticalNexus.)
◆What is Requiem of Reuinis? I looked into it! A thorough comparison of the specific differences from TacticalNexus!
[PR] Recommended for those living in regions with a 240,000-hour time difference! New Subscription: Special Theory of Relativity Overcome Plan!
★★Player Support and Pricing Structure★★
✨Requiem of Reuinis✨
・They’ve set up a dedicated feedback channel and provide thoughtful responses, even to critical reviews—truly dedicated customer service
(From experience, I think that’s seriously tough)
・Priced lower than a single TacticalNexus DLC, and with a demo version available—a design that’s extremely player-friendly
🤮TacticalNexus🤮
・Notorious for discriminatory and sloppy customer service
・Trash
・Buying all currently available DLCs costs about $140, which is equivalent to a month’s rent in rural Japan
★★Game Difficulty and Various QoL (Quality of Life) Features★★
🌟Requiem of Reuinis🌟
・A fantastic game playable by everyone from experts to beginners, thanks to a system that lets you lower the difficulty if it’s too hard
・A design that blends tutorials with the story to help players understand the game easily
・An excellent UI that displays various information clearly
・The Japanese text is translated by humans, resulting in natural, easy-to-understand text
💀TacticalNexus💀
・The worst design ever: “If you haven’t played a ‘magic tower’-style game in over 1,000 hours, go home”
・Information pops up 5 seconds after launching the game with absolutely no explanation
・The worst design ever for efficiently destroying your eyes
・You used machine translation
Why is it inhuman
Pain caused by suffering
Lacks warmth
I and You are swapped because the subject is omitted in the source text
[PR] Game Design Decision Dice are here! Roll the dice to optimize your system-building speed!
★★Development Announcement Delays & Update Frequency★★
💎Requiem of Reuinis💎
・Prompt bug fixes
👹TacticalNexus👹
・They’ve never failed to delay a release
・Cosmic trash
・Bug fixes create more bugs
What did you think?
Unfortunately, it turns out this isn’t the time to be playing TacticalNexus.
[PR] Recommended for those eagerly awaiting updates! Sign up for the “Cold Sleep” subscription!
◆On the Diversity of Creativity Rooted in Culture
*The text above is a parody of a Japanese “curation site.”
I feel like continuing to write in the style above might start to feel a bit off, so I’ll go back to my usual writing style.
What I personally find fascinating is that “Tots-like” (Magic Tower-like) games take on quite diverse forms depending on the individual or team developing them.
And this diversity isn’t simply a matter of everything being completely different; rather, it stems from the fact that “cultural concepts vary by country and region, and creative trends change significantly accordingly.”
(That said, there are certainly cases where they are truly “completely different,” and I imagine some creators might dislike being viewed through such a cultural lens based on their country of origin.)
“Requiem of Reuinis” is a particularly popular title in China, but in China, “Tots-like” games fall under a major genre known as “Mota” (Magic Tower).
In China, there’s a major “Tots-like” development tool, and many games are created based on it.
(From my perspective, that development tool seems to be based on the RPG Maker engine, but I’m not entirely sure.)
For example, in TacticalNexus, “enemy special effects” don’t appear very often (though I imagine that in the future, bosses—starting with unique enemies—will occasionally use magic).
On the other hand, in Mota, there are quite a few enemies with special effects, such as “ignoring defense” or “performing preemptive attacks,” and there’s a wide variety of mechanics specific to each enemy.
For example, in TacticalNexus, there’s a benefit where “clearing the game quickly rewards you with a golden feather, which increases your score.”
On the other hand, Mota doesn’t have many such mechanics (though there is a system where you can spend money to boost stats), and there’s a tendency where “no matter how you play, your total stats basically don’t change much.”
From a programming perspective, “EXP multiplier mechanics” are clearly easier to implement than “unique mechanics for each enemy.”
(It simply requires handling EXP acquisition and adding a branch where certain parameters are “affected by the EXP multiplier.”)
Given this context, I wonder if Mota’s tendency to emphasize enemy individuality stems from cultural influences or major titles that shaped the Chinese “Tots-like” genre.
Now, among overseas Tots-like games (though the systems may not be strictly the same), there is a game called Towers of Scale.
(It seems the game designer once spoke with the developer on a different server, and quite a while ago, he asked me, “I want to explain the game system, so could you write up a summary of that?”)
This game was developed inspired by our TacticalNexus, and the developer himself is currently active on the TacticalNexus Discord.
Towers of Scale has a lower difficulty level than TacticalNexus and is a fairly easy game to play.
[dynamiclink href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/3962750/Towers_of_Scale/"][/dynamiclink]
Towers of Scale features gameplay that’s even simpler than Tots-like, based on the premise that “you can defeat enemies with a Power value lower than your own.”
(TacticalNexus is sometimes described as a “game that feels like an online ad,” and in a sense, this might be the prime example of that.)
On the other hand, as the word “Scale” (meaning “measure” or “magnitude”) suggests, this game features mechanics that multiply (or divide) your Power value, and there are numerous objects on the map that halve your Power.
For example, if you use “Power +100” three times and then use “Power/2,” the total increase in Power will be only 150.
Conversely, if you apply “Power/2” first and then perform “Power+100” three times, the total Power increase will be 300.
In this way, the fun of Tower of Scale lies in strategizing your way through the game while searching for the “most efficient path.”
Now, regarding how Tower of Scale was inspired by TacticalNexus, Tower of Scale features a system (Gems) similar to that of Sunstone.
As the title “Towers of Scale” suggests, the game features numerous stages, and achieving a high score on each stage rewards you with a corresponding “Gem.”
This allows you to expand the range of playstyles that were resource-constrained during your first playthrough.
As you can see, even though these are “spin-offs of the Magic Tower,” their directions are varied and diverse.
The reason is simple: within a single game like “Magic Tower,” what each developer personally found enjoyable and what they wanted to expand upon varies greatly from person to person.
◆ Room for Creativity in “Genre-Based Templates”
On the other hand, what people find “fun” varies significantly depending on their country, culture, or what’s popular in their region.
This might come as a surprise, but I, the author of this piece, read quite a lot of manga and novels.
Our scenario writer has recently been hooked on “robot anime from decades ago,” and as a programmer, I’ve been watching classic TV dramas from about 20 to 40 years ago on Netflix while I work.
(When I’m writing pieces like this, I usually just listen to music, but when I’m programming, I generally work while watching something.)
We often discuss among the staff what specific aspects of a work we like and so on.
Now, as a hobby, I’ve been devouring the “young lady” genre—which skyrocketed to fame over the past 10 to 15 years—like there’s no tomorrow.
I’ve read over 1,000 manga volumes, and when it comes to novels, I scour the internet for works over 70,000 characters long, reading everything in my preferred genre.
↑ A bookshelf that looks like a girl’s
Personally, I’m completely male—both in terms of gender identity and biological sex—but there are a lot of really interesting works in the “young lady” genre.
A good tip is to look at works ranked around 4th to 20th, rather than those in the top 1–3 spots, in the weekly unique visitor rankings.
In Japan, the “Isekai” (異世界転生) genre has been popular for about 15 years now.
While there are quite a few exceptions to this (and some of those exceptions can be incredibly interesting), broadly speaking, the trend is that “a protagonist who didn’t succeed in the real world is reincarnated into another world with immense power and uses that power to thrive.”
So, the “Reijou” genre can be considered a derivative of “Isekai.”
The most common pattern is “a protagonist who lived in the real world is reincarnated into the world of a fictional game or novel—specifically as a ‘villain’ (or ‘villainess’).”
The reason I’ve been following these “Reijou” stories quite closely—though there are many aspects I haven’t yet been able to put into words—is that, rather than simply liking romance stories, I think it’s because “they often have a clear quest structure or objective.”
Since the protagonist has “reincarnated as a villain destined for ruin,” they’re essentially given the quest to “avoid that ruin.”
Another way to enjoy these stories is seeing “how the protagonist and the narrative navigate a predetermined path or set of circumstances.”
In “young lady” stories, the protagonist reincarnates into a “fictional game or story,” but there have long been works exploring the question, “What would happen if a modern person encountered the past or famous historical figures?”
For example, in Japan, there’s a manga titled “JIN” in which a modern-day doctor brings his medical knowledge to a past era; this was adapted into a TV drama and achieved high ratings.
In “JIN,” the historical figure Ryoma Sakamoto appears partway through the story, and from that point on, the focus shifts to “how the protagonist will intervene in Ryoma Sakamoto’s fate—who, according to historical fact, is assassinated.”
Generally speaking, the “young lady” genre doesn’t feature many very long works; the predominant style involves a single professional author releasing works of about 70,000 to 150,000 characters every few months.
Rather than betting everything on a single work, the trend is increasingly toward consistently releasing multiple works and prioritizing the author’s unique “flavor.”
When “similar works” continue to appear within a genre or on a posting platform, the result isn’t just “competition.” “Optimization” also occurs.
When depicting stories about “how to resist a predetermined fate,” in the past, that “predetermined fate” was set against the backdrop of “historical facts,” but nowadays, it’s set in “fictional games” (games featuring the “villainous young lady” where the protagonist is reincarnated).
From my perspective, I get the impression that within the “isekai reincarnation” genre—whether aimed at men or women—there aren’t many works that truly strive to stand out with a unique voice.
The plot where “the protagonist dies after being hit by a truck or similar vehicle, is granted special abilities or a new life by a god or similar entity, and then possesses a body or is reincarnated in another world” is common to the vast majority of these works.
It’s what you might call a “template.”
In music, there’s a clear technique known as “predetermined harmony”—the expectation that “this phrase will be followed by that phrase.” Similarly, in isekai reincarnation stories, the “template-like plot development” functions as a form of predetermined harmony.
And when this concept of “predetermined harmony” persists, a “shared understanding” emerges among readers.
It’s along the lines of, “Since this development has happened, I know the next one will be like this.”
◆ “This Is What I Want” That Emerges from “None of This Is Necessary”
In “isekai reincarnation” stories, where this “shared understanding” exists not only among authors but also among readers, it becomes easier for authors to omit explanations regarding the story’s world-building.
For example, unless the setting is particularly elaborate, neither the author nor the reader needs to think too deeply about the specific details of what “monsters” are. That’s because the general vibe comes across even without explicit explanation.
The same applies to the specific details of what an “adventurer” is. That’s because the general vibe comes across even without explicit explanation.
The same goes for “adventurer ranks.”
In fact, it would even be possible to omit the entire story and explain it all in just a few lines of synopsis.
That’s because, thanks to a vast array of “templates,” there’s a “substitute”—the shared understanding (template) that exists within readers—for every aspect of the story.
I’m just parroting what a Team-Nexus scenario writer said, but works based on historical facts are hard to write.
If you don’t research deeply enough, you’ll get called out on inaccuracies—and that’s because I used to pick apart stories to death myself back in the day. I feel a bit guilty about that now.
On the other hand, with a completely fictional story, you can simply insist, “That’s just how this world works.” It makes things easier.
Unless you’re someone who enjoys crafting epic fantasy or depicting political structures, sifting through all that reference material when you’re not even interested in those topics is, well, truly grueling.
In that context, well-established “templates” like “isekai reincarnation” or “young lady” stories allow you to completely omit the parts you’d rather skip.
If you’re thinking of writing a novel or story, these genres are probably the easiest for beginners or even children to get started with.
That’s because you can omit most of the details by relying on a “shared understanding of the template.”
For example, the “young lady” genre itself encompasses several subgenres.
In “villainous young lady” stories, as mentioned earlier, the basic plot involves a protagonist destined for ruin who struggles to defy that fate.
In “broken engagement” stories, the basic plot involves a protagonist who is already engaged at the start of the story but has their engagement broken off by a bad fiancé, and the story follows how they respond to that.
In “I Will Never Love You” stories, the basic plot involves a protagonist who is engaged or married early in the story being told by their fiancé or spouse, “This marriage/engagement is a contract, and I will never love you,” and then the protagonist’s response to that.
Now, this kind of “common understanding” in young lady stories is one of the main reasons I enjoy these genres.
The reason is that because the templates are so well-established, authors have considerable freedom in how they infuse their own “flavor” into the story.
This is merely a general trend—there are plenty of exceptions—but works aimed at male audiences tend to “start from various entry points but lead to similar conclusions and plot developments,” while works aimed at female audiences tend to “start from the same entry point but lead to different conclusions and plot developments.”
In particular, I get the impression that, compared to works aimed at men, the templates for works aimed at women are much more firmly established.
When it comes to “villainess” stories, since there’s a clear, predetermined future—namely, that “if things continue this way, the protagonist will meet a tragic end”—I get the strong impression that, in a sense, the scope for expanding the story tends to be quite limited.
In the “isekai reincarnation” genre—where virtually everything can be omitted—the details that are not omitted and are actually depicted are, in essence, “the very scenes the author wants to depict (or wants to show the reader).”
And in works aimed at female audiences, there are parts where you can quite clearly sense, “Ah, this is what the author really wants to portray here.”
In other words, the key to these works lies in the fact that, because there is a shared understanding, “you can omit the bland parts and focus on refining the parts that have substance.”
Also, in most “young lady” stories, there’s a scene where a man carries the female protagonist in a “princess carry.” Unlike the “Kabe-don” trope, this seems to genuinely reflect the aspirations of female readers and female authors, so I’ve decided that if I ever start a family, I’ll build up my arm strength so I can do a princess carry three times a week.
◆ Searching for “What Is Lack” and “What Is There”
Personally, I believe that in a space where “everything can be omitted,” the very fact that there is a part that makes you think, “I want this,” is perhaps the most important thing in creative work.
And such elements often incorporate cultural context as well.
As mentioned earlier, I primarily focus on reading “young lady” fiction, and what I find particularly interesting are the depictions of “overcoming adversity.”
Compared to other countries, Japan has relatively little “racial discrimination,” but until just a few decades ago, the differences in treatment based on gender were extremely pronounced.
Particularly during the pre-war and wartime periods, children were viewed as “human resources to be sent to the battlefield,” and women’s role was, quite literally, to bear children.
(There’s a story that, in order to win the war, it was necessary to have many children, and that during the war, the country was full of pregnant women.)
Although the number of full-time housewives has decreased today, one or two generations ago, the treatment and roles of women tended to be much more rigidly defined than they are now.
In a sense, I was quite curious about what the culture of the opposite sex was like.
This was because the approach I had taken was fundamentally one that made the most of my “male” gender.
In my 20s, I was quite fierce, and back then, when it came to strategy, I often resorted to methods that were, in a sense, even more direct than simply focusing on “winning or losing.”
(As I’ve mentioned several times, coming from a family of doctors and politicians, I was told that I “lived by pre-war values.”)
For example, there are times when you can inflict harm without it becoming an issue, and times when you can suffer harm without it becoming an issue.
It’s often the case that if the victim makes an issue of it, they end up suffering even greater harm.
I came from a family with that worldview, and in a sense, I was the person who adapted to it best.
This was because, while I had sensory sensitivity that caused problems in my daily life, I also had an extremely high tolerance for general pain.
As I’ve mentioned several times, what I possess most is experience with authoritarianism, and the majority of what I’m capable of doing now stems from methods I derived by working backward from the concept of “the opposite of common sense.”
However, this approach—which, in a sense, centers on physicality—is a very “masculine” way of handling things.
Back then, I possessed the conviction and track record—born of the ruthlessness and endurance I had developed—that “I would never lose in a test of grit,” so I used that “masculine” side to my advantage to secure my position.
In short, I’ve consistently operated on the principle of “since I’m the strongest, I’ll use that to control the atmosphere of any situation.”
(It’s not that I’m physically strong or anything; I’ve simply engaged in endurance tests that involved physical and mental hardship.)
It’s a simple, straightforward, barbaric world—one that even animals can understand.
In a sense, I’ve made full use of my gender to navigate life, so I like my gender and have a strong attachment to it; however, I can’t imagine how I would conduct myself if I were a woman.
I possessed the skill to create “agency,” but within a female worldview, I likely wouldn’t be able to bring the skills I’ve developed—the ones I’m most proficient in—into play.
The worlds and cultures we inhabit are simply too different.
The intensity and pressure I can exert as a man are things I likely wouldn’t have been able to muster if I were a woman.
That is a world that’s difficult to control using the “brutal” methods I know, and the reality of the female world was that I simply didn’t know what I’d be able to do if I were there.
For example, a long time ago, when I was searching for game ideas by looking through “children’s toys,” I discovered that a significant proportion of toys for girls from several decades ago incorporated the concept of “fortune-telling.”
The concept of “fortune-telling” appeared in quite a variety of items, and there was a tendency for a worldview to be constructed in which “acting according to the fortune-teller’s instructions” was considered the right thing to do.
I don’t know if this was a result of men shaping public perception or if women themselves desired it, but it left a deep impression on me—it really highlighted a worldview where one “entrusts one’s agency to others.”
And, at least within the “young lady” genre, that notion comes through quite strongly.
Many “young lady” stories fundamentally feature characters whose “social standing and ‘fate’” are clearly predetermined, and I suspect this isn’t a coincidence—it’s rooted in that cultural background.
Furthermore, many “young lady” stories are well-written, and I get the impression that the proportion of works where “the protagonist has a strong sense of self” is significantly higher compared to works aimed at male readers.
I used to spend a lot of time pondering questions like, “How should I live my life, having been born into a unique family and burdened with an even more unique physical condition?” And from my perspective, there’s actually quite a bit of inner characterization in “young lady” stories that makes me think, “Wow, they’ve really thought this through and have a keen eye for people.”
In a sense, they’re using creative works as a medium for “expression”—to give form to the things they love and the ideas they hold.
Once you acquire that way of seeing things—those concepts and perspectives—the information you gain from interacting with people and creative works expands dramatically.
In isekai reincarnation stories, where “anything can be omitted,” there’s a strong tendency for a significant portion of the narrative to be devoted to exploring “what the protagonist wants to do” and “what kind of person they want to become.”
In works aimed at male audiences, “fate” often serves as a plot catalyst or narrative device, but in works aimed at female audiences, I get the impression that “fate” tends to be portrayed as the central theme throughout the story.
The endings of “young lady” stories are diverse; some involve defying fate, while others involve accepting it.
However, the concepts of “fate” and “assigned roles” are constantly emphasized to both the author and the reader.
Given that such depictions are found not just in “this one work” but in “many works,” and considering that there is a shared understanding of this, I suspect that (Japanese) women’s culture likely harbors a very strong awareness of this “system/assignment of fate.”
And since many people are strongly conscious of these things, there is also a tendency for them to have a “deep understanding” of them.
I believe that the reason the main characters’ assertions and ideas tend to be so clearly defined in works aimed at women is likely because, as they are constantly made aware of these issues in their daily lives, there are now more authors whose sense of agency has developed as a result.
◆Human-Created Expression and the Underlying Current
Now, content like “Tots-like” falls into the same category as the “isekai reincarnation” genre I just mentioned—it’s the kind of content where “you can omit as much as you want.”
To put it bluntly, you can omit combat scenes, you can omit item collection, and you can omit the story; all that’s required of the player is to “move toward the goal.”
It is precisely because everything is “something that doesn’t need to be there” that there is freedom.
Amidst the freedom to omit everything, the very elements you feel compelled to keep represent the “humanity” of that creative work.
This holds true whether you’re creating alone or with others.
You could, like in Towers of Scale, strip things down to “simply comparing numbers” and then add a “Gem (Sunstone) system,” or, like in Requiem of Ruin, add a “special effects system” to enable a wide range of possibilities.
Whether you subtract or add elements, it’s all a form of “expression.”
The elements that manifest in “expression” vary greatly depending on the country and the individual.
At first, there will likely be many elements that are difficult to understand.
However, if you trace the underlying currents, you’ll find that each place and person has their own logic, and you can enjoy discovering, “Ah, so this is one way of looking at it.”
Just as a man can enjoy reading novels intended for women.
(Since Monthly Nexus is content aimed at a specific group of fans—and we have no intention of preserving it for the future—we’ll only be publishing discussions about these “ways of enjoying” the content until the game is completed.)
In particular, people who have reached a certain level and have a clear sense of “what they want to do” tend to create content that reflects that vision with great care.
We’ve been enjoying content in this way for quite some time now.
Rather than simply enjoying the content itself, we trace the background circumstances and culture behind it to consider questions like, “How is this enjoyed in its place of origin?” and “What kind of flavor does a Japanese-style (or our-style) adaptation bring?”
I have a vague sense that, from our perspective, the East tends to aim for benefits based on relative or unconditional principles, while the West tends to aim for relative benefits.
(That said, this is a field where “there’s far more we don’t know than what we do,” so I don’t think I can really make any definitive statements about it.)
In “Tower of the Sorcerer”-style games, it’s very noticeable that—aside from gimmicks—there are rarely instances where “parameters decrease” other than HP.
In other words, the numbers basically just keep going up.
Games based on this concept of “increasing numbers” are referred to in the English-speaking world as “incremental.”
(This term is typically applied to games like Cookie Clicker, so calling Tots-like games that might be a bit of a stretch.)
Given that Mota’s major players are from China and considering the nature of Chinese games, I get the impression that “incremental” is closer to an Eastern concept centered on “absolute” values.
In the West, where a sense of competition is deeply rooted, competitive games seem to be popular; these are aimed at “beating the opponent” and tend to be more relative in nature.
On the other hand, in single-player games and incremental games, the goal is to “increase numbers as much as possible,” which tends to be more absolute in nature.
On the other hand, just as games like Cookie Clicker became popular in the West, incremental games are a concept that can easily resonate even in the “relative”-oriented Western culture—as long as players understand how to enjoy them.
Just as a significant number of English-speaking players have become masters of an entirely different caliber through TacticalNexus, once you grasp the “how to play” and the underlying principles, you can adapt to anything like this.
No matter what world, country, or person creates a game, as long as it exceeds a certain level, the “individuality of that person (or those people)” will shine through in the game.
It is especially in games like these—where everything can be submerged—that a person’s humanity truly manifests in the game.
Sometimes doing the same thing is fun, and other times, following a different path can lead to discovering new forms of enjoyment.
Due to our stance, we don’t usually bring up topics related to Tots-like games, but this kind of information is one way to enjoy games and content.
Just like blood vessels circulating blood, content is interwoven with a vast network of logic, and once you cross a certain threshold, a whole new world of information suddenly opens up.
If you play while thinking about these things, you might discover a whole new way to enjoy the game.
◆ Website Updated
We plan to launch a new test server on Discord soon, and in preparation for this, we’ve discovered some information we felt should be shared. As a result, we’ve published a summary of our activities and intentions.
http://temporenup.fuyu.gs/tacticalnexus.php
*Note: The page above is hosted on an inexpensive plan from our old server and does not yet have SSL (meaning it uses https instead of http), so you may see a warning message about this.
What this means is, “If you enter a password or other sensitive information on this page, it could be intercepted.” However, since this site doesn’t have any input forms to begin with, it’s generally safe.
(I don’t know much about it since cybercrime seems to be getting pretty intense these days, but basically, we’re building this with that kind of vague understanding in mind.)
As I mentioned in the article, what really shocked me recently was the difference in rent between Japan and the U.S. (or rather, other countries).
I’ve heard that properties in Tokyo are expensive and that land prices are rising across Japan in general, but for example, in Aioi City, Hyogo Prefecture—a rural area where I lived for about six years—you can rent a place for a single person for less than $200, usually within a 10-minute bike ride from the station.
I don’t know how it is now, but back then, Aioi was relatively (or rather, quite) safe, and thanks to the large elderly population, at most of the larger supermarkets, you could buy almost all the sushi at 50% to 70% off after 9:00 PM.
On top of that, there was a place called La Mumaato right in front of the station—it was like the ultimate wholesale supermarket—where you could even buy bento boxes for as little as $1.30 (198 yen).
It might be tough to find a decent full-time job within a few kilometers, but that’s not really an issue for part-time work. And if you can handle a full-time part-time job, it’s the kind of place where you could eat sea urchin and sushi every day.
In fact, I used to stock up on massive amounts of half-price sushi every day. There were dentists and hospitals nearby, and since you could take the train from the station to Himeji to get to the city, it was a pretty great place.
The fact that cockroaches, centipedes, spiders, bees, and other huge bugs are constantly appearing there destroys about 85% of those benefits, but I think I’ll probably end up living in that area again eventually.
(Medical costs in Japan are low—a tooth extraction costs about $20–$30, and allergy medication ranges from $8 to as high as $25 per month.)
In Japan, there’s a mindset that says, “If you don’t have money, go work,” and personally, I’m incredibly inclined toward that perspective.
Both “how to make money” and “how to save money” naturally improve with practice, and since the government already provides quite generous support, there’s a strong tendency for a sense of personal responsibility to take hold.
On the other hand, I get the feeling that in the U.S., anyone who expresses this view is either someone who has truly overcome the worst possible circumstances or is engaging in some pretty malicious provocation.
Rent in the U.S. is about 5 to 10 times higher than in Japan, and it’s not uncommon for people to commute dozens of kilometers to work.
In the U.S., the current proportion of people who are homeless is quite low, but on the other hand, it’s estimated that about 6–7% of people have “experienced homelessness at least once in their lives,” and if you include staying with friends or relatives, that figure exceeds 10%.
Things like living alone or changing jobs probably aren’t 20 or 50 times harder, but I still get the impression that the difficulty level is at least several times greater (though I think this depends to some extent on one’s upbringing).
In Japan, people can generally “rely on the government (welfare),” but abroad, that isn’t always an option, and depending on the environment, the standards required can become incredibly high.
It’s been seven years now that I’ve been having quite a few conversations with players, and I’ve really come to realize that cultural differences in countries I’ve never lived in are truly endless.
The Tactical Nexus DLC was originally planned to be priced several times higher than it is now, and I personally still hold a fairly strong belief that “since you can actually play it for thousands of hours, it’s okay for it to be expensive.”
However, when compared to political or livelihood issues like those, I do find myself thinking, “Well… compared to that, it’s a bit…”
While I do feel that I don’t want our own values to be disregarded, I also realize that those other issues—the political and livelihood ones—are the ones that really shouldn’t be overlooked.
(Making the main package free didn’t increase revenue at all, and considering that it reduced the volume of customer support we had to handle, I think that if we hadn’t made it free, we could have developed a few more stages, and sales would likely have gone up by about 10 million yen.
That said, we’d already reached the point where we’d come to realize that “we can do anything if we put our all into it,” and we never developed TacticalNexus within a business context to begin with.)
Coming from a family of doctors and politicians, I’d always thought—right up until we sold this game—that “it’s a bit inappropriate to bring up politics or everyday life issues just because we’re talking about a game.”
This is because when it comes to political topics, there are two levels: “stating what one knows” and “balancing existing issues against one another”—and in Japan, the former overwhelmingly dominates political discourse.
Conversations between people capable of engaging at the latter level are very important, but discussions between people at the same level—or between those at different levels—are generally not meaningful.
It is a politician’s job to consider “which option is the best among various problems”; simply presenting information without making comparisons rarely leads to efficient improvements.
*Unlike in American politics, it is almost unheard of in Japan for “the winning party to repeal the majority of the policies of the party that was in power (i.e., the party that lost this time).”
“Doing good deeds” is important, but whether “it is an efficient use of one’s time—one that’s worth sacrificing personal time for”—is a separate matter.
For example, in “fundraising activities,” having a large group of people call out to passersby in front of a train station is, at the very least, beneficial for spreading awareness that “a disaster has occurred” or that “there are disadvantaged communities.”
On the other hand, if five to ten people are engaging in such activities, there are more efficient ways to do it—for example, “having five to ten people actually work and donate the money they earn directly to charity.”
(Of course, if a company were to make its employees “donate all of today’s profits as relief funds,” that would be a major problem, and in reality, this is quite difficult to pull off.)
“Good deeds” and actions done “for the greater good” involve considerations of efficiency and appropriateness; if you want to carry them out properly, you need to keep these factors in mind.
Everything has different levels.
If someone at “Politics Level 15”—who’s interested in politics but doesn’t know how to compare information—drowns out the voice of someone at “Politics Level 70”—who already knows a lot and is taking concrete action—that causes considerable harm, relatively speaking.
In that sense, even though we use the single word “politics,” there are huge differences in level and quality. At the same time, since our own lives are at stake to some extent, everyone becomes desperate to “make their voice heard.”
Since the volume of a voice doesn’t necessarily equate to its validity, we wanted to avoid bringing up such topics too much.
That said, it’s quite important to ensure that we don’t make the “TacticalNexus” content take precedence over politics or daily life.
The TacticalNexus Discord is a place where people really chat about all sorts of topics, and I personally enjoy it quite a bit.
That Discord is full of players who do all sorts of crazy things, like bringing Excel into game walkthroughs or sharing screenshots to verify the most efficient routes.
Being able to do these things together and share information appropriately essentially means “being good at having all kinds of conversations.”
It makes it very easy to talk about all sorts of things and very easy to listen to others, you see.
For starters, the difference in the “rent-to-income ratio” between Japan and other countries seems quite clear, and I’ve actually researched this quite a bit myself.
Personally, what surprised me the most was that there really are significant differences in job待遇 and rent based on race and other factors.
In the past, when countries invaded, they would carry out “colonization.” It was a method of sending their own people to the invaded territory to establish control.
On the other hand, Japan is an island nation. While there are territorial disputes over economic zones and the like, aside from those, frankly speaking, it’s the kind of region where you’d wonder, “What’s the point of taking over this country?”
So, we have virtually no concept of “interracial conflict at the origins of a nation.”
Regardless of region, Japanese people generally look “Japanese,” so—except for dialects—it’s rarely possible to tell where someone is from just by their appearance.
If I saw a takoyaki maker in someone’s home, I’d probably think, “This person must be from the Osaka area,” but since a takoyaki maker isn’t permanently attached to a Japanese person’s face, you wouldn’t know until you actually visited their home.
Also, even if someone doesn’t have the so-called “Mongoloid” appearance, if there’s a takoyaki maker in their home, I’d probably assume they’ve been to Osaka. That’s the kind of thing I mean.
(My father is from Osaka, so there’s an unused takoyaki maker at my parents’ house.)
Well, in short, since we’re from a country where “racial appearance doesn’t determine whether something is good or bad,” we (at least) didn’t really have a strong sense that there were actual differences in how people were treated based on race or other such factors.
On top of that, I didn’t know about differences in rent, so I vaguely thought something like, “Countries in that part of the world have plenty of land, so maybe you could live there for around $50 a month.”
(Also, recently, I’ve been watching quite a few YouTube videos of people doing DIY projects and surviving in the wilderness—in some mountains or forests—to keep myself occupied.)
On the other hand, if they’ve been living in such harsh environments, it makes sense that the players in the Discord community are all exceptionally polite in their writing.
Conversely, I do wonder, “How do they manage to develop a sense of morality in such a harsh environment?” However, it seems many players in the community hold the view that, when raising children, one should “distinguish between beneficial and harmless information,” which made sense to me.
In Japan, since there are essentially no “hostile forces,” I get the impression that placing strict restrictions on the information provided in education isn’t generally viewed positively.
For example, my parents raised me using the example of Nobel Prize winners as a model, but this was, if anything, a style of education that gave me “quite a lot of freedom.”
To be a bit more specific, since Hideki Yukawa’s upbringing was characterized by “providing educational materials but not giving many specific instructions on how to use them,” my siblings and I were raised with a similar approach: “If there’s something you want to learn, we’ll provide the materials, but we won’t give you direct answers.”
(In reality, since I personally had sensory sensitivity and an extremely acute ability to perceive information as a result, I don’t think any type of education would have made much difference for me. However, my sibling went on to become a company president and has reportedly maintained an income more than ten times the average annual salary since turning 30.)
In the Japanese education system, extreme restrictions tend to be common at schools with standard scores around 60 to 70. However, once you reach an estimated standard score of 80 or higher (not based on university majors, but simply estimated as being in the top 0.1% or so), my impression was that the opposite approach becomes more common: providing a variety of information and allowing students to develop their strengths.
(However, from my perspective, while this approach that emphasizes freedom benefits “children capable of choosing their own path,” I believe it poses a problem for those who aren’t at that level, as they may struggle to figure out what they truly want.)
On the other hand, given the various real-world issues in the U.S., such as discrimination, there seems to be a strong tendency to place significant emphasis on “comparison” and “judgment.”
Naturally, for people with a certain level of ability, these skills develop over time, allowing them to discern information from others at a higher level.
I’d often wondered about the roots of the many players who are good at filtering information—neither getting swept up by others’ opinions nor becoming stubborn to the extreme—since their approach clearly resembles that of people in Japan with a standard score of 70–80. However, after talking with them, this made a lot of sense to me.
(Normally, the process of filtering information tends to lean toward “imposing” one’s views, but there are many people in the Discord community who steer the conversation toward striking a balance—and I think this is truly remarkable.)
So, given that, discussions about politics and daily life are probably necessary to some extent “for the sake of comparison.”
It might have been different if the distance between TacticalNexus’s development team and the players had remained as wide as originally planned, but since we’re having casual conversations on a relatively daily basis, it feels a bit off to ignore those political and everyday issues.
We engage in casual conversations that feel a bit closer than the typical “developers and players” dynamic.
In that case, I get the impression that it’s probably better—or at least that we should keep saying—things like, “This is just a game,” or “Between the game and political/lifestyle issues, the latter is more important, so please prioritize that.”
The article mentions that “when something really major happens, the community remains in a state where development can continue,” and this is exactly what that refers to.
Even if a decisive rift were to form between us and the community—leading the community to harbor irreparable resentment toward us—or if something were to happen that made me furious, that would still be within the context of “hobbyist game development.”
Both the development team and the players have devoted anywhere from several thousand to over 10,000 hours to this game, but the average human has about 500,000 hours of waking time in a lifetime.
If I were to say something like, “There’s this kind of intention behind this aspect of the game,” I’d need to mention a comparable amount of other events to strike a balance—something along the lines of, “We have this deep strategy behind this, but that doesn’t mean it’s worth sacrificing your life for.”
The test server likely significantly bridges the gap between participating players and developers.
(To prepare for situations where passion or responsibility becomes particularly intense, we’ve set it up so that game designers aren’t allowed on this server; instead, they check information via their Team-Nexus accounts.)
Furthermore, if developers act as if they’re too perfect, a breakdown is bound to occur somewhere.
Whether it’s the game itself or the culture surrounding it, there’s fundamentally more that we don’t know than what we do.
Creating a server like this tends to foster a rather strong, almost religious atmosphere in a sense.
So, by bringing up topics like politics and daily life in this way, I aim to strike a balance by reminding everyone that “TacticalNexus is, at its core, a small endeavor”—and on that basis, I want to ensure that the time we spend here is as meaningful and enjoyable as possible.
When it comes to games, I actually prefer spending time enjoying them while thinking, “It doesn’t really have any direct value,” rather than thinking, “This is valuable” and trying to enjoy them that way.
Therefore, I intend to impose that mindset on all of you.
◆Let’s Look Back at the Normal Route of Chapter 9-1
Now, I’d like to review Chapter 9-1.
The Floating Tactical Fortress was—how should I put it?—a stage that left both the developers and players with very nuanced impressions, such as “This is probably supposed to be a good stage, but…,” “It’s not bad, I guess…,” and “It’s a groundbreaking system, but….”
Looking back at recent stages, one thing I’ve become absolutely certain of is that “we need to switch from multiplication to addition.”
For example, in 8-3 (Mirror), we added an EXP multiplication mechanic toward the end of the game, and things got completely out of hand.
In Guide, for instance, we included a lot of Golden Feathers that doubled EXP, and things got completely out of hand.
For example, in the pre-adjusted 5-0 (Bridge), the game spiraled out of control because the multiplying golden feathers could be generated semi-infinitely.
Starting with Chapter 6, our game balance policy centers on the principle of “in general, don’t make it impossible to clear.”
Stages from Chapter 6 onward each feature highly unique systems, and it takes quite a bit of time to understand the individual mechanics.
In that context, if we create stages that are “difficult to even clear,” players won’t feel very motivated to play those stages.
In other words, we believe that when incorporating unique systems, we need to be mindful of making them “easy to understand” and “not extremely difficult” for players.
Given that, including a large number of multipliers is a fairly risky approach to balancing.
For example, let’s say we have the following equations: y = x, y = x² (x squared), and y = x³ (x cubed).
Now, suppose we thought, “Beginners should be able to progress up to x = 4, and if they play well, maybe up to x = 7,” but in reality, they ended up making it all the way to x = 10.
When x = 4, y = x is 4, y = x² is 16, and y = x³ is 64.
When x = 7, y = x is 7, y = x² is 49, and y = x³ is 343.
When x = 10, y = x is 10, y = x² is 100, and y = x³ is 1000.
For y = x, when x ranges from 7 to 10, the value of y ranges from 7 to 10, with an error factor of approximately 1.4.
For y = x², when x ranges from 7 to 10, the value of y ranges from 49 to 100, with an error factor of approximately 2.0.
For y = x³, when x ranges from 7 to 10, the value of y ranges from 343 to 1000, with an error factor of approximately 2.9.
In other words, the more multiplicative terms there are, the greater the repercussions when the developer’s predictions are off.
For y = x, the difference is 1.4 times, but for y = x³, it’s 2.9 times. If y = x⁴, the difference would be more than 4 times.
We clearly recognized this during the development of Chapter 8-3, Guide, and Bridge.
Going forward, our adjustment policy is to avoid releasing systems where such multiplicative effects overlap if we want to achieve a proper balance.
This is because, with the exception of the final stages of each chapter, our top priority is ensuring the game can be cleared; we haven’t given much thought to strategies specifically designed for achieving high scores.
On the other hand, most of the really good ideas we came up with this time were conceived just a few weeks before the update, and if we were to bring them to a sufficiently polished state, we’d likely need to delay the release by several more months.
So, we more or less wrapped things up in that state for the time being, but as expected, we ended up having to make quite a few balance adjustments.
With that in mind, I’d like to look back on the new systems incorporated into this stage, touching on each element as we go.
◆Skill Board
This was the system I was most eager to implement in this stage.
With the exception of Energy Reload, I feel it’s functioning reasonably well.
The system of “using points earned from leveling up to unlock skills” is, at its core, a mechanic that already existed—most notably in “Tactical Tower G” from Chapter 1-6.
However, the Skill Board system makes this concept a bit easier to understand, and it also stands out because, in addition to stat boosts and keys, players can acquire “passive skills” as level-up rewards.
Originally, all SP costs were standardized at 2 SP, and the placement of “SP” items was quite different from what it is now, but we actually prefer the current system.
◆The “Energy” System: Bringing Two Multipliers to Stats and Three to Scores
In normal stages, stat increases from leveling up are “fixed values based on level.”
For example, at LV 101, the total stat increase from a single level-up is 5,050, and the stat values that have increased up to that point remain unchanged.
Energy, on the other hand, works differently. Energy you’ve already acquired also increases via “passive skills on the skill board.”
In this stage, both Energy and SP increase when you level up.
Energy accumulated in the past tends to significantly boost your stats.
In this stage, the total stat values reach over several million, and this is one of the reasons why.
Ideally, we should have implemented either Energy or the Skill Board for this stage, but since the “Energy” system had been planned from quite early on and the Skill Board seemed like it would be fun, we decided to incorporate both.
Furthermore, the score is calculated as “Level × Stats,” which effectively becomes a cube—that is, “Level × Energy × Skill Board Passives.”
If the developers get the values wrong, it leads to explosive numerical inflation—and since the developers did get the values wrong, that’s exactly what happened.
◆The Biggest Problem: Energy Reload
This was the Pandora’s box we opened toward the end of development.
Originally, Stage 9-1—which was still being balanced—was a challenging stage.
We were actually quite aware of the aforementioned issue, which is why we had decided to “make the Skill Board relatively self-contained.”
If there were a cap on the passives that could be raised via the Skill Board, the game balance could be maintained to a certain extent, even if the stat that increased with leveling up was Energy.
However, we felt that in that case, playstyles might become somewhat uniform.
Up until a certain point, you can prioritize whether to raise Attack or Defense, but once you’ve maxed out the passives, there’s no difference left.
Normally, in Tactical Nexus, players can choose whether to raise ATK or DEF from the level-up menu.
Given that, I thought having the stats you can raise fixed would make gameplay monotonous.
That said, I accepted that this stage was just designed that way and kept working on it until about a month before the update.
However, we came up with the idea of “resetting the skill board while retaining the passives you’ve acquired.”
While this has the potential to completely destroy game balance, it also adds a significant amount of “diversity” to playstyles.
I thought it would be fun to figure out things like when to reset your progress.
So, We were well aware of the risks involved, so even the game designer reacted this time with something like, “Come on, this is a bit much…”
However, we came up with this idea just a little before the update, and if we were to thoroughly refine it to ensure proper balance, it would have taken an additional two to three months.
So, even though it was like a live bomb waiting to go off, I gave the green light and left it be—but strangely enough, the bomb actually exploded.
This was full of mysteries and something no one could have predicted. Why did this end up happening?
Damn it, I can’t forgive this… Game designer, I’ll never forgive you…!
◆Scroll: Golden Feather
The Golden Feather worked effectively in Bridge, but this time, we tried placing it along the path in the stages.
To cut to the chase, I probably won’t do this again. I think we’ll stick with the original system where you can collect a lot of them toward the end of the game.
The programmer noticed during balancing that the rate at which stats increased varied greatly depending on whether the scroll was present or not, so it seemed like game balance was heavily influenced by whether players could pick it up or not.
I felt it was necessary to arrange them in a way that made them easier for players to pick up, so I—rather than the game designer—adjusted this during the final tuning phase, so I designed it with the idea that “since picking these up is a given, I should subtly hint to players that they should pick up the scrolls as much as possible.”
However, in the current version, since players can obtain Energy Keys early on and essentially do whatever they want, the Golden Feathers have ended up fluttering about quite wildly.
Who had the right to stop them once they’d started fluttering? (※Lyrics from a famous Japanese song)
The timing of picking up scrolls becomes more effective the better you grasp the key points, but it tends to become too effective.
The Doubling Golden Feather had the restriction that “you must pick it up after collecting all the regular Golden Feathers,” but since the doubling effect of the Scroll Golden Feather takes effect retroactively, there’s a tendency to think, “The sooner you pick it up, the better.”
On top of that, since this item was far more powerful than the regular Golden Feather, things ended up getting completely out of hand. As they began to flap their wings, they discovered a shining tomorrow. (※Lyrics from a famous Japanese song)
◆A system where starting stats are quite low, but stats inflate in the first two tiers
Frankly speaking, most of the aforementioned systems were utter garbage, but this is a system that will likely be implemented in all future stages.
As a first-time experiment in this stage, the first two tiers are designed so that only Thieves and Breakers have stats that are extremely high compared to other enemy types.
This is because Fighters, Slashers, and Rangers are treated as de facto Tier 1, while Thieves and Breakers are treated as de facto Tier 2.
The same applies to Tier 2 enemies. In other words, the first two tiers of Stage 9-1 actually account for four full tiers.
Originally, this stage was designed with initial stats ranging from 1,000 to 2,000 in mind, and we had planned to keep the stats for the first two tiers the same as usual.
However, shortly before the update, adjustments were made to bring the stage to its current state.
We decided to lower the starting stats to 100 and, in exchange, allow players to acquire items on the stage to make up for the reduction, thereby creating a different gameplay experience for the first two tiers (effectively four tiers) compared to before.
What this means is that it minimizes the need to pour a massive amount of Sunstone into the game early on, while still preserving the value of that investment.
Originally, we planned for the total amount of Sunstone obtainable in Tactical Nexus to be around 50,000, but judging by the current rate of increase, it will 100% exceed 100,000.
The enemy stat lines for Chapters 1 through 5 were set with this in mind, so by the time players reach the point where they can obtain the Mystic Gate or Last Inflator on each stage, top-tier players will likely be able to defeat them unscathed and at Level 1.
This is because, even when using the Last Inflator, the stats of most enemies will only reach around 100,000 at most.
While this is a failure in terms of balancing, on the other hand, I feel that adding a decay effect to the Sunstone’s effect, for example, wouldn’t be very fun either.
We previously buffed the Bronze Sunwisher, and the reason for that was, “If the Sunstone increases significantly but the stats don’t rise much, it ultimately isn’t fun.”
And fundamentally, we approach the game with the mindset that “if it breaks, so be it.”
This doesn’t apply if we come up with a balance adjustment in the future that makes the game “fun,” but otherwise, we consider it natural—including the fact that the game can be cleared easily.
On the other hand, that’s our perspective on “past stages”; our perspective on “future stages” is different.
We want to ensure that the players who are currently playing the most can still enjoy the game properly.
And the solution that came to mind was this design.
For example, let’s say you’re playing a new stage where this system has been implemented.
You’ve just defeated a Tier 1 Thief and a Breaker (effectively Tier 2), and thanks to items obtained on the stage, your ATK/DEF has reached 2000.
Now, let’s say you’re facing three Tier 2 Breakers (effectively Tier 4) in a row.
The enemies’ ATK and DEF are quite high, making them difficult to defeat.
To avoid the battle, you’ll need to use the many keys and Orbs you’ve collected so far.
On the other hand, if you had around 5,000 to 10,000 Sunstones at that moment, you could avoid “consuming a large number of keys and Orbs” and instead defeat the Breakers by boosting your stats.
In that case, you’d be left with plenty of valuable items. It’s also a good idea to use Legacies or magic to avoid combat depending on the situation.
If we implement a system where stats inflate, even a difference of tens of thousands in stats would become a minor disparity.
On the other hand, such inflated stage design would hinder the enjoyment of “collecting more Sunstones.”
(I think it’s somewhat acceptable since the enjoyment derived from spells and Legacies can still be maintained.)
Therefore, we need to ensure that “the meaning and value of using Sunstones” itself is maintained to some extent.
If this system is implemented, by investing Sunstones or using Legacy and magic, players can maintain a large amount of “supplies” and “resources” through the process described above.
In particular, many players who possess a large number of Sunstones are well-versed in how to use supplies and resources. Even if these are converted into supplies rather than stats, they’ll remain quite useful.
It works something like this: “If you spend 30,000 Sunstones at the start, you won’t need to use a Platinum Key in the first stage, so you’ll effectively start the stage with 10 Platinum Keys.”
By doing this, we can maintain the value of Sunstones in a somewhat effective way against stat inflation.
We think this is an unquestionably excellent idea.
However, as is often the case, we came up with this idea late in the stage development process, so we didn’t have time to fine-tune it, and we weren’t able to fully demonstrate that “this was the intended design” in this stage.
That said, compared to the other effects introduced in this stage, this system is one where “even if it fails, it won’t cause any balance issues.”
◆Passive Stat Multiplier Boosts (and Bundle Items)
This is one of the systems designed to address the “stat inflation problem” mentioned earlier.
(That said, bundle items were already introduced in Bridge, and I imagine quite a few players have been playing that game for a long time and are already quite familiar with them.)
I believe this system is functioning without issues, and I feel the “cap on affected stats” is set at a fairly reasonable level.
Taking advantage of this, we’ll likely be able to introduce gear with boost amounts of around 100 to 200 early on in the game.
This time, there were no “enhanced buff effects upon leveling up” like those for the Shield Badge or Fire Knife, but we plan to implement this in future passive skills that increase equipment multipliers.
◆Overall Assessment and Policy for the Alternative Route in 9-1
For us, this stage was one where we came up with a lot of great ideas and were able to implement them.
You could say it’s an exquisite dish packed with top-notch ingredients.
The problem is that among the premium ingredients in the soup, there are foreign objects like rocks and plastic bottle caps mixed in—things that aren’t fit for consumption.
Who on earth would do something like this…! Damn it, I can’t forgive you, the game designer…!
(※I get the impression that the game designer probably worked harder on this stage than ever before.)
To be honest, I’d love to “remake this stage,” but I have a feeling the standard route will most likely stay as is.
If I really feel it’s hopeless, I’ll figure something out, but for now, that’s the plan.
By the way, for a while after 9-1 was released, DLC sales doubled—probably because “players earned massive rewards in 9-1”—which left us with very mixed feelings. But I’m actually glad that DLC sales have slowed down recently.
(We were concerned that even with 500 to 1,500 Sunstones, clearing a difficult stage would be impossible without being familiar with the game, so players who bought the DLC might not end up satisfied with the results.)
Anyway, I came up with several really great ideas, but the timing of those ideas was terrible—or rather, it was far too late.
It would have been different if I’d had them within the first two months of development, but since they came to me much later, I ended up disrupting the balance that had already been established and had to force these systems into the game.
That said, “if executed properly,” I think these mechanics would have been quite fun.
I’d like to include a stage with the skill board mechanic—maybe once or twice—in one of the stages from Chapter 9-3 to 9-5.
The problem is the Unique Enemy Route, which will inherit this finalized game design.
There are plenty of ideas for “making it harder,” but I’m not sure if we’ve come up with any ideas that actually “make it more fun.”
So, I think we’ll ask players for feedback on the aforementioned test server, tweak a few of the versions that were well-received, and implement them.
(However, since we probably won’t have much time to fine-tune the parameters, I imagine we’ll start the test version with very rough parameters and then properly adjust them toward the end.)
Team-Nexus has a fairly broad understanding of solutions and ideas, but we simply don’t have the capacity to determine whether they’re effective or not.
We’re fundamentally too biased toward the “developer’s perspective,” and relying solely on our viewpoint makes it take a very long time to grasp the “player’s perspective.”
Anyway, after we announced the call for testers, quite a few players volunteered to “test multiple versions,” so we plan to create several copies of the game and bundle them into a ZIP file within the next few days.
Here’s the current proposal for the unique enemy route in 9-1:
◇ By activating a certain mechanism midway through the stage, enemies are significantly buffed and their tier is increased by 1 (original plan)
→ This mechanism itself will likely apply to any of the versions listed below
◇ Limit the “activation of a certain mechanism” described above to the start of the game
→ This significantly narrows the available strategies, so while the difficulty increases, there’s the question of “Will players actually find this increased difficulty fun?”
◇ A pattern where “Golden Feathers” are nerfed only in the Unique Enemy route
→ This is probably the easiest to balance, but it similarly raises the question of “Will players actually find this fun?”
◇ A pattern where, at the start of the game, the effect of Energy Reload is replaced with a system that “disables the Skill Board reset and multiplies the effects and costs of acquired passives by X”
(If an ATK passive increases by 1 level for 2 SP, after acquiring Energy Reload, the effect becomes “the passive increases by 2 levels for 4 SP”)
→ This leads to a strategy of “how to save 1 SP passives early in the game to recover Energy Reload”
Essentially, it’s the same as the “Golden Feather system that delays enemy defeat,” but there’s a question of whether, well, the gameplay actually changes much?
(I also have a feeling that the system of having to conserve SP to obtain Energy Reload will become frustrating.)
As a side note, speaking in terms of so-called “lore,” the unique enemy scheduled to appear in this stage—Shimatsu (Judge)—is a character who, in the original work, fought Purple in what was (for Purple) the largest-scale battle in the story.
(The original work incorporates various world settings “just the setting” was incorporated so it could be adapted to various works, but it’s fundamentally a story centered on human drama, and grand background settings are only depicted indirectly.
There are two exceptions to this: one is “The Resurrection of the Magic Emperor (A Letter to the Magic Emperor),” which depicts the story of Kelt’s resurrection. In this work, a character named “Hyde, the Nexus Child (Nexus Child / Hero),” who will appear as a Unique Enemy in the future, is treated as the de facto protagonist (Hero), and there’s a setting where Kelt is generally kind to children and goes easy on them throughout the story.
The other is “Goodbye to the Future,” a story in which Purple fights to stop the runaway of Laplace—a generative AI that, in modern terms, can predict and generate future technologies—and in this story, Purple plays the role of a fairly heroic protagonist.)
The “Energy” system in this stage is a remnant of that, and I’m currently mulling over whether it makes sense that Purple is weaker than in the normal route during the Shimatsu battle—which, in the original work, was like a “Monster War.”
(I’ve come up with some ideas for a solution regarding this, but they’re a bit forced.)
As we set up the test server, we need to create an environment where participating players can download data as automatically as possible (or with minimal effort). So, for the next week or so, it looks like we’ll be discussing ideas with the staff that might make things a bit more interesting.
◆About Test Server Operations and Rules
Well, that wraps up our review of Chapter 9-1.
Furthermore, in order to implement the alternate route for Chapter 9-1, we’ve decided to conduct a trial run of the test server we had planned to build and have players test multiple versions of Chapter 9-1.
(Thankfully, about a dozen players have already volunteered to join the test server.)
To join the test server, you must meet one of the following three criteria:
・Players who have been members of the TacticalNexus Discord server for at least a year and a half and have conversed with a developer’s account (including casual chat and bug reports)
・Players who have used the temporary beta test thread on the TacticalNexus Discord server
・Players who have been assigned the “Star-burgeoner” (Advanced Player) role on the TacticalNexus Discord server
As for the test server rules, while there are some details, the most important rule players must follow is “Mandatory Irresponsibility.”
To gain access to the test server, players are obligated not to take responsibility for their own actions, to refrain from arguing with other players, and not to hold others accountable for their actions.
◆The Nature of Rules on the Test Server
When it comes to rules, the first thing to consider is whether to “write down what you want people to follow” or “write down what you don’t want people to break.”
Basically, rules that “prohibit” something are established to weed out the bottom 1% or fewer of people.
Even if there’s no rule stating, “You must not steal other people’s belongings,” ordinary people won’t think to steal, whereas those who steal will do so regardless of whether a rule exists.
On a small scale, it’s faster to directly warn or exclude people who are clearly problematic rather than restricting them with rules, and it prevents decent people from being bogged down by rules—that is my perspective, having gained experience with dictatorship in a system governed by human judgment.
“High initiative” is generally regarded as a positive trait, but in the upper echelons, this is not necessarily the case.
This is because high initiative is usually the flip side of a lack of self-control and a lack of mental endurance.
Taking action improves your skills, and you become capable of doing things.
And when you become capable of doing something, your ego grows.
On the other hand, there are very few situations where you can always be number one.
If you’re someone who “talks a lot” or “takes proactive action,” you need to hone your ability to interpret what others are saying in equal measure.
In other words, the key to effectively utilizing “high initiative” is to maintain a willingness to absorb the intentions of others in proportion to the growth of your own ego.
While speaking about yourself, you need to be conscious of observing carefully and thinking, “Ah, so this is what the other person is thinking.”
Put into words, this is a very simple concept, and if you’re fortunate in your relationships, you’ll realize it immediately when someone points it out to you as you act. However, at least in Japan, this is a concept that’s virtually unknown.
Furthermore, if such people were to join, it would make administration extremely difficult, so we must ensure that people like this do not join.
However, as stated in the membership requirements, participation in the test server is limited to those who have been around for a while and have had some conversations with others.
My impression is that there probably aren’t any people who meet those criteria but also fall under the conditions mentioned above.
Therefore, the biggest problem we need to avoid has already been resolved at the rule-setting stage.
For this reason, we do not need rules aimed at “exclusion” or “rules we don’t want broken.”
On the other hand, there are things we do want players to do.
These are: not taking on too much responsibility, and not needlessly compromising their health.
The game TacticalNexus was not developed within a business context.
By any measure, the revenue from this game is overwhelmingly lower than Japan’s minimum wage, and we’ve been continuing development under these circumstances for nearly seven years.
To begin with, the only people who are particularly skilled at TacticalNexus are myself and the game designer.
Given these circumstances, having just one or two active test players would speed up the development of the game’s design aspects several-fold.
However, in reality, the cumulative playtime recorded by TacticalNexus players stands at 800,000 hours, which far exceeds the total waking hours in a single person’s lifetime (500,000 hours).
And now, the cumulative playtime has increased by roughly 200,000 hours. Converted to a single person, this is equivalent to 30 years of waking hours.
No money is changing hands with this game, but an enormous amount of time is being invested.
When you consider that, the impact of a test server is immeasurably huge.
We haven’t done it simply because we have no intention of doing so, but if we wanted to, we could reasonably position TacticalNexus within a business context.
In Japan, where the game’s reach is expanding whether we like it or not, if we ran large-scale advertising campaigns to boost awareness, we could increase the player base by about tenfold. Furthermore, if we reduced the price of DLC to about a quarter of what it is now and shifted toward a “low-margin, high-volume” sales strategy, sales would increase in other countries as well, and we could likely earn around $300,000 to $500,000 annually.
If we went that far, our income—even after deducting taxes and margins—would exceed the average annual income in Japan by a significant margin.
However, from our perspective, that isn’t necessarily a good thing.
It would be different if the scale or revenue were increasing by a factor of 1,000 or so, but for a 10- to several-ten-fold increase, we feel it’s better if the serious players in our current community continue to enjoy the game as they do now.
My own view is that “we’re intentionally scaling back operations for something that has the potential to expand significantly,” so even if someone tells me that the game has been running for longer than a single human lifetime, I’d just think, “Oh, I see.”
On the other hand, some staff members were actually quite pleased that the player base grew, and I suspect the test players feel the same way.
In many ways, I believe that “we can’t stick to what we originally decided (or rather, even if we could, it’s better not to),” and I know from personal experience that even if we try to be perfect, we can’t actually achieve it.
However, I’m concerned that the test players—who are likely the ones best positioned to steer TacticalNexus in the right direction—are the ones most likely to feel this pressure and, as a result, become overwhelmed.
Personally, this is what I want to prevent the most.
Normally, when interacting with people, you have to demand responsibility, and in fact, I’m the type of person who has no qualms about telling people that.
However, the people who come to the test server have known me personally for several years or more, and because of that, they’re likely to feel a strong sense of responsibility.
So, conversely, on the test server, I’m going to implement a double standard: “the obligation to be irresponsible.”
This is because while people who lack a sense of responsibility need to be held accountable, those with a strong sense of responsibility need to be allowed to be irresponsible.
◆People Are Influenced by Others
In reality, I think having just two or three “skilled players” on the test server is probably sufficient.
(Even if only about one of them actually participates in testing)
On the other hand, as long as someone can access the test server—regardless of skill level—I’d like to gather a wide variety of “feedback.”
The scope of “what’s possible” is likely broader than most of you imagine, but we don’t yet know “how to proceed.”
On the test server, players can discuss things among themselves, just like in the “General” channel on TacticalNexus, but we’ve also opened up direct messages so that individual players can send their feedback directly to me.
(Since the test server is likely quite a heavy load for the game designer, I have him check the information through the account I always use, and I’ve set it up so that his own account cannot access the test server.)
Originally, the only people who were really good at TacticalNexus were the game designer and me—and even among the two of us, I’m significantly better.
When it comes to gameplay, the other staff members are primarily focused on coming up with ideas rather than actually playing the game.
Furthermore, a long time ago, whenever I participated in development, I had a tendency to make the game extremely difficult, and as a result, I try not to play the game too deeply until we enter the “final tuning” phase (the work right before an update).
Well, we’re severely short-staffed.
On the other hand, even in this environment, we’re putting in a significant amount of personal effort to ensure we can release a reasonable number of stages.
Given this situation—and I’ll say it again—I believe test players bring nothing but benefits to the game.
On the other hand, I’ve always had an extremely high tolerance for overwork, and on top of that, I’ve honed the skill of “maintaining judgment while exhausted” to a considerable degree.
When implementing Chapter 9-1, I pulled a stunt where I said, “We’ll implement it in a few hours,” only to delay it by a week—but conversely, the fact that I did something like that means I do possess the judgment to realize that “when things get really bad, it’s better to pull everything back and take a break.”
I always try to keep in mind that there are better ways to handle things than forcing through a decision no matter what, and when that perspective starts to waver, I make sure to take a break until my judgment returns.
Most people would spiral off in a much worse direction in situations like that.
(Though, to be fair, most people don’t tend to push themselves that hard in the first place.)
However, that kind of judgment usually requires a considerable amount of experience to develop, and the more conscientious a person is, the stronger their sense of responsibility tends to be when they influence others.
For example, let’s say a test player suggests an idea, we adopt it, and then work nonstop for several hours to several dozen hours to implement it.
In most cases, the test player will feel conflicted or responsible, thinking, “My idea forced the developer to work so hard without taking a break.”
Even if that person later starts thinking, “Maybe this idea wasn’t so good…,” if I’ve already released that version, they might feel compelled by that sense of responsibility to keep playing through that stage for a while.
On a separate note, if I’m constantly talking or working on development, there will be people who think, “Since this person is working so hard, I should do my best to help out too.”
Furthermore, the very people who feel this way are often the ones who don’t talk much about how hard they’re working.
Personally, it’s happened more than once or twice that work I’ve spent several months to over a year on has come to nothing, but I don’t let that bother me—I see it as a necessary process, failures included.
And the reason I (sometimes) work long hours is so I don’t get sick in that kind of environment, and because I know exactly when “working any longer will make me sick.”
Since I worked for a long time in an environment that was quite harsh even by Japanese standards, I’ve really mastered various coping strategies—such as dealing with the decline in working memory (that feeling where your mind goes blank or you can’t think straight) when I’m yelled at or hit, how to trigger an adrenaline rush on my own, and how to regulate my autonomic nervous system.
In any case, because I have this experience, I can maintain the same level of efficiency as usual up to a certain point even when I’m exhausted. Mentally, it’s relatively easy to tell myself, “This much is fine,” so that’s how I handle it.
As for development delays and issues like that, it’s basically not because “my judgment is off because I’m feeling unwell,” but simply because “my judgment is off even when I’m feeling fine.”
That’s a different kind of stupidity than overwork.
On the other hand, pulling all-nighters significantly disrupts the autonomic nervous system; if you’re not used to it, you may struggle to sleep properly. Furthermore, if you neglect proper hydration or solid food intake, your stomach may temporarily shrink, and your appetite may diminish.
(If you’re not used to it, you might mistake the sensation of your stomach shrinking for a “heart problem.”)
Unexplained physical abnormalities cause people to feel excessive anxiety, and if they neglect to replenish nutrients, this can also lead to a decline in emotional well-being and judgment.
Simply put, unfamiliar physical discomfort makes it easier to cause interpersonal conflicts, and after recovering, the person may feel a sense of self-reproach, thinking, “Why did I do something like that…?”
If handled carelessly, overwork simply impairs judgment, steering things in the wrong direction and resulting in people becoming ill or experiencing health problems.
(That’s why I felt it necessary to clarify on our website that Team-Nexus consists of people from a rather unique world, so I updated the site.)
Since I’m able to avoid those pitfalls, I have to “work overtime for a few hours to over ten hours when necessary”—if I don’t, the work will simply fall behind—so when needed, I’ll do it pretty much anywhere.
However, I only do this because I’m capable and good at it; I wouldn’t recommend making someone who isn’t used to it do the same, unless they’re willing to train themselves to handle that kind of overwork.
Until you understand the progression of physical changes, days spent writhing in anxiety and suffering will make up 30–40 percent of your daily life.
Once you get the hang of it, you’re invincible, but I don’t think it’s worth spending several years gaining that experience through “just game content that doesn’t even make money.”
◆The Purpose of the Test Server and the Purpose for Test Players
What’s important isn’t “being there for a long time” or “being good at the game,” but rather “having had various conversations over the course of several years.”
Even if it’s through translation software, players who already meet the requirements for joining the test server know each other to some extent.
And these are people with whom we’ve repeatedly discussed, analyzed, and resolved issues whenever conflicts arose due to cultural misunderstandings or similar reasons.
In fact, contrary to what I just wrote, my impression is that the more they talk to me, the deeper our mutual understanding tends to become.
However, in my estimation, there will almost certainly be a significant proportion of people who “fall ill or lose their minds due to responsibility or stress,” as I mentioned earlier.
I’m cold-hearted, so I don’t care at all when people on the “bad” side fall apart, but it’s a different story when people on the “decent” side—or those with whom I’ve been chatting casually for several years—start to lose it.
Given that my goal is “to enjoy this within the context of hobbies or close-knit circles, without expanding it into a business setting,” I can’t help but wonder if it’s right to have such “victims” in the process.
While I can’t guarantee 100% accuracy—there might be a failure rate of a few percent—for now, I believe I’ve generally figured out an approach that seems capable of avoiding these kinds of problems to a certain extent.
Now, in the first half of this article, I discussed the logical structure of “expression and culture.”
I wrote that once you reach a certain level, “the more fixed the template, the more an individual’s personality shines through,” but that kind of analytical approach is, at its core, a mathematical one.
Deriving the conclusion that “something is absent” from the information that “something is present,” or deriving the conclusion that “something is present” from the information that “something is absent,” is very similar to the problem of “proof” in mathematics (though I wouldn’t go so far as to say they’re exactly the same).
I have been applying this way of looking at things in my daily life for a long time now.
I use this approach not only when considering creative works but also when observing individual human beings.
For example, while people say, “Emotions aren’t logical,” in reality, emotions have a structure that is quite mathematical and puzzle-like.
(I touched on this topic in the combined February–July issue.)
Even if people cannot distinguish between good and evil, they can easily distinguish between benefit and harm. Furthermore, human beings are equipped with nerves—organs that perceive “pain and suffering.”
In other words, most people can identify “direct harm” because pain and harm are directly linked.
On the other hand, there are two types of harm: “direct harm” and “indirect harm (harm that comes around eventually).” Through experience, we develop the imagination to gauge the latter, enabling us to make “holistic judgments.”
The reason we can take bitter medicine without thinking of it as “harm” is that we can judge that the harm resulting from not taking it outweighs the harm felt immediately upon taking it.
Simply recognizing harm means merely recognizing “negatives,” but when we consider the direction of “the opposite of harm” (ways to move away from harm), we acquire the ability to identify “benefits” in the process.
In other words, we begin to distinguish between “not negative” and “positive.”
Furthermore, if we can gain a deep understanding of harm, benefit, and what is neither harmful nor beneficial, we can, in the process, learn to distinguish between good and evil to a general extent.
In this way, if you can take an approach based on mathematical “logic,” the mere fact of “recognizing harm” allows you to grasp a remarkably broad spectrum of the human psychological system.
To a certain extent, you can judge the extent of a person’s value system based on their actions and judgments, or deduce their line of thinking from the flow of their reasoning.
Furthermore, if you possess a certain degree of insight and engage in repetitive training to quickly connect various pieces of information, the difficulty of understanding a person’s mind—regardless of your capacity for empathy—will decrease significantly.
If the techniques of a logical approach are strong and the quality of the information prepared in advance is high, you can obtain a vast amount of information by understanding not just two things, but even just one.
Once you understand what “is,” you come to understand what “is not”; and once you understand both, individual pieces of information connect through the continuity of “causality,” and the accumulation of these expands into a coherent system.
I strongly believe that “personal” information encompasses not only addresses and names but also a person’s mental processes and logical frameworks.
At least for players who meet the membership requirements, I have a certain degree of understanding of that mental aspect of their “personal information”—and I imagine the players likely see me in the same light.
Conversations in such situations aren’t merely information; by comparing them to the causal relationships that have come before, one can grasp deeper insights.
Just as with the earlier discussion of understanding cultural context through the “isekai” genre, it’s possible to extract fairly well-defined information—ranging from the content of a work to matters beyond it.
With such players, I’m prob
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